Samuel, Saul, David and Jonathan

Well, this note comes right in the middle of 1 Samuel. Lots of war and drama, quite a contrast with the happy ending story of Ruth. Samuel is born to Hannah, a woman barren for the majority of her fertile years and who was tormented by her sister wife because of it. Hannah was granted a son (Samuel) because she prayed to the Lord that he not forget her, His servant, and that she be given a son that she would dedicate him to God for all of his life; that a razor should never touch the hair on his head. Samuel (among other children) are born to Hannah, and Samuel is devoted to God.

Samuel enjoys favour in the eyes of the Lord and serves Him under the tutelage of Eli in the temple of the Lord that held the Arc of the Covenant. In Samuel 3, Samuel hears the Lord’s call. It is in the evening and he and Eli are lying down to sleep at the end of the day. Samuel hears a voice calling his name 3 times and 3 times he goes in to Eli to answer. Each time Eli explains that he did not call Samuel, and the third time Eli realizes that it is the Lord’s voice calling to Samuel. Eli instructs Samuel to respond to the next call, “Speak Lord for I am listening”, an invitation to us all to truly hear the Lord’s call in our own lives.

Israel fights the Philistines in Samuel 4 and experiences incredible loss. In the lost battle against the Philistines, Israel has lost 34 000 soldiers, the Ark of the Covenant, Hophni, Phinehas and Eli die and, after bearing her son Ichabod, Eli’s daughter-in-law. Eli was 98 at the time of his death and was the judge of Israel for 40 years. I can imagine that the nation would be thrown into desperation with the loss of the Ark of the Covenant and their Judge and his family.

The Philistines keep the Ark in the city of Ashdod; idols of their gods tumbled and broke at the feet of the Ark, and horrible plagues of panic, tumours and rats take over the city killing many of the people that lived there. The Philistines moved the Ark from one city to another until 5 cities were consumed with plagues; the five lords of the Philistines sent the Ark back to Israel with a test and guilt offerings of golden tumours and golden mice. The test was that two never-before-yolked
milk cows should pull the cart that carried the Ark and the offerings without guidance and if the cart is pulled directly to Israel’s lands this would be confirmation that the plagues were sent by the God of Israel. Two things come up for me here: the first is that the Philistines were also familiar with guilt offerings, and the second is that this story is recorded in the holy scriptures of Israel which means there must have been some friendly exchange between nations or peoples of these nations in order to get the story straight. As a freshman, I found all of the descriptions of guilt offerings, burnt offerings, sin offerings, etc. in Leviticus very extensive and they were new to me. The novelty in my eyes translated to my assumption that the Lord’s commandments to Israel about these offerings, their purposes and their methods were a completely new kind of thing. Does the familiarity of the Philistines with guilt offerings show that guilt offerings and the like were also practiced by other Hebrew and Semitic religions? Or does it mean that the Israelites had some influence on the peoples it warred with? Either way this changes the importance of God “setting apart” the Israelites from the rest of the human species. God painstakingly dictated dress, manner, ritual, custom, patterns of speaking, eating, being and acting so that His people would be known as chosen. The books of Numbers and Leviticus are dedicated to conveying the utmost importance of distinction between holy and unholy, clean and unclean, chosen and not chosen. So, if the worshippers of Dagon (the god of the Philistines) knew guilt offerings perhaps God was playing a variation on a theme; a gentle way of adapting familiar practices to bring His people closer to Him. A loving acceptance of His children’s propensity toward habit and comfort in the familiar. On the other hand, does the Philistine’s familiarity indicate that there is a blurring of the lines between clean and unclean? Is this an indication that through the generations of warring, Israel’s rituals and some of their meaning have infiltrated the practice of others? How does God feel about that? Would God be angry that the unclean were in a position to be confused with the clean? Would God be overjoyed that the gentiles were beginning to turn their faces, ever so slightly,  toward Him?

The story of the golden tumours making their way by milk cow cart to Israel struck me as funny. I am not an oncologist and so don’t know what a tumour looks like, but can imagine that it would be a little bump-like thing with an appearance somewhat like a poached egg. So, giggling, I wondered what the Philistine’s version of a tumour would look like and what on Earth did the Israelites make of them when they arrived? Did the Israelites shake their heads and think that the crazy Philistines had finally lost it? Maybe, but the fact remains that the guilt offerings of the Philistines were not thrown aside. The story continues on and focuses on the offering of the cows as burnt offerings and the falling of 70 men who laid their eyes on the Ark. This says to me that perhaps the lords of the Philistines who followed the cart at a distance did cross into the borders of Israel with their holy cargo and explained themselves and the gold poached eggies. How is it that another war didn’t immediately break out caused by a rabid mob of Israelites slaughtering the five men responsible for such heartache and defilement of their holiest of holies? Instead a stone was set up and the Philistines were “subdued”, the cities that the Philistines took were returned to Israel and Samuel became Judge. This sounds to me like Israel may have lost some of it’s blood thirst and the forgiveness that God has shown them is bleeding into their own way of being.

Israel cries out to Samuel to set a king over them. God takes this as rejection of His kingship over His people. Samuel warns them that a king will exploit them and bring them misery but they don’t listen. Saul is chosen as king from the most humble tribe of the Benjaminites to rule over the people. Saul was a good king in Israel’s eyes as he defeated the Ammonites and re-instated the kingdom of Israel at Gilgal. After the victory Samuel explained the grave sin of the Israelites to them; they abandond the Lord their God as king and asked for a human king to be set above them. He explained God’s faithfulness throughout the fickle history of Israel and reminds them that they MUST follow the Lord. Samuel calls on God and the Lord sends down a storm to destroy the wheat harvest of the people. Israel then saw that it had committed terrible sin in asking for a human king to replace God in their rule.

Saul’s reign over the people was full war with the Philistines. Saul is ready to go to war and makes an unauthorized offering to the Lord in Samuel’s absence. But his son Jonathan has faith in the Lord and goes up against the Philistines with only a few men. The Lord delivers the Philistines into Jonathan’s hand and there is a great victory. Saul then swears an oath that if anyone eats before the day is through and he has vanquished his enemies that they will be damned. Starving (and not in full knowledge of Saul’s oath) Jonathan tastes honey that is falling from the trees in the forest. He is revived and speaks out against Saul’s vow saying that it is not right to starve fighting men and that this oath has tarnished the war victory in the minds and hearts of the people. Israel saves Jonathan from judgement and death because of his faith and work in the Lord in the battle against the Philistines.

Saul went out to war against the Amalekites at God’s bidding. They were to devote every person and animal to destruction. Saul was victorious in battle and killed everyone except for King Agag of the Amalekites and killed all but the best sheep and oxen. All of the spoils of war were being brought back by Israel to be sacrificed to the Lord; but the Lord was angry with Saul for his disobedience. God called on Samuel to visit Saul with His Word. God had left Saul because of his disobedience and sent the message that although Saul may have meant well in saving the best of the spoils to sacrifice to the Lord, what God most wants is obedience of His commandments. Samuel told Saul that God had chosen another, a neighbour who was better than he; Saul was beside himself and Samuel grieved.

Samuel was then called to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, because God had chosen him. Saul, at this time, was being tormented by a harmful spirit of the Lord, and even after God had left him, he was still king and in a position to send for David to serve him. Saul needed someone to play the lute for him to make him well whenever the harmful spirit took him over, David was recommended to him and Saul did not know he was the chosen replacement. So God sends the newly anointed David to serve the shamed King. Is this another lesson in humility? David is often seen as the underdog and a figure that illustrates the importance of humility and loving God passionately; he was the 8th son of a shepherd who was chosen for his pure heart. This aspect of David as servant to Saul is a surprising one. Perhaps it was just logistics; getting David close enough to Saul and to battle to prove himself with the defeat of Goliath. Is there a deeper meaning? Saul was "disowned" for disobedience and for not honouring God’s word.  It seems like the minute after David is anointed by Samuel with the oil of his horn, David is called to serve a disgraced king by playing the lute. Most people would scoff at the orders, he is newly anointed by God after all. But David goes, and he serves. He follows God’s will, he does not complain or doubt his path; is this another lesson in contrast? David’s obedience and openness to serve God through service to one of His disgraced children may be the ultimate illustration of what God saw in David’s heart the day of his anointing.

Saul goes out to battle again with the Philistines and Goliath steps out to challenge Israel on the battlefield in a one-on-one combat for the win. Saul is afraid of Goliath because of his size and power. Israel cowers. David who is coming and going from tending his sheep to the battlefield is sent by his father to make sure his brothers are still alive in Saul’s army. David hears Goliath’s challenge and is outraged that an uncircumcised Philistine is challenging the living God and His army and His nation. David is brought before Saul and is determined that he will go out and win against Goliath, that the Lord God who protected him against lions and bears will allow him to defeat the giant. Saul doubts but he lets him go. David defeats goliath with humble weaponry and no armour although he was offered the king’s suit and sword. Saul begins to hate David because of his success, the love of Jonathan (Saul’s son), his talent for battle and the love of Israel for him. Saul begins to plot against him hoping his daughter Michal would become a snare for him, because Saul is beginning to realize that God is with David. This story is the comparison of a pure and open heart with a saddened and darkened heart. Does David know what pain Saul carries in his heart? Does David sense at all the twisting of Saul’s spirit with jealousy and fear? David is the underdog in the story that we all cheer for, but Saul is not so easy to pin. He was greedy, harsh in his judgements and rash in his decisions. Saul was disobedient and arrogant which led to his abandonment and shame. I can relate to succumbing to the urges of greed and taking short cuts. I can relate to the feeling of emptiness as shadow takes over where the sun once shone; I find it so hard to condemn Saul even after all of his shortcomings. He can be cast as the villain here but we should remember his humble beginnings as well and his human need for the love of God which is forever to go unsatisfied.

Saul plots to kill David and David flees for his life with the help and love of Jonathan. David and Jonathan are bound by a covenant with God that they will stand by one another and be bound to one another. Thank God for the love of friends.

May we blur the lines of "otherness" in our own communities through the sharing of our daily bread, May we seek to understand the experience of these "others" and to have this understanding season a gentle response, May we go out into the world with the love of God filling the hearts on our sleeves to liberate our communities and families from the fear of bears, lions and giants and May the Lord always lead us into the embrace of friends in times of need. Amen.